Systems and methods herein generally relate to scanning methods and scanning systems, and more specifically to those methods and systems that involve workflows of processing that occur after items have been scanned.
Optical scanners have transformed the ability of humans to communicate. From the initial facsimile machines that seemed to almost magically “transport” printed sheets (sometimes across the globe) at the speed of light using single scan lines of monochrome marks sent to a distant receiving facsimile machine over telephone transmission systems, to optical character recognition (OCR) systems that have provided the world access to all of man's writings throughout the ages, to image scanning and manipulation systems that can alter reality through manipulation of images in photographs, to sophisticated 3D scanners used in combination with 3D printers that permit items to be practically teleported through time and space, scanners have had a true impact on society's thoughts, images, and connections.
Modern scanning and transmission systems have increased the usefulness of scanning equipment by allowing the user to specify multiple recipients of a single scan, where the user can enter the email addresses of one or more recipients at the local user interface of scanners. However, entry of such data into the sometimes-limited scanner interfaces can be challenging, where for example if a scan recipient's email address is not in the scanner's address book, the user would need to remember the address or take a note to the device and type it in, which can be time consuming and prone to errors.
Further, while users can provide the recipients' email addresses using remote computing devices that are network-connected to a scanner (e.g., Embedded Web Server, etc.), the items that are to be scanned need to be loaded in the scanner before the instructions to scan are sent from the remote device, which may be acceptable for single user devices, but such is not highly useful in typical office environments where a scanner is shared by many users.